


Renewal

by PeroxidePirate



Category: Tortall - Pierce
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-12
Updated: 2010-04-12
Packaged: 2017-10-08 22:02:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeroxidePirate/pseuds/PeroxidePirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kel takes the opportunity to renew an old friendship, but Raoul might have a bit more in mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Home in Corus between assignments, Kel learned that Third Company was between assignments, too. When Lord Raoul invited her to share dinner in his rooms, she jumped at the chance to revive a friendship she knew they had both neglected for far too long.

The company was pleasant and conversation was easy. The two knights stayed up, talking, for hours. It was nearly dawn when Kel dragged herself away, but she couldn't remember when she'd enjoyed herself so much.

The second time he invited her to dinner was much the same as the first. Kel was surprised to find that she was enjoying her time in the capital, rather than waiting impatiently for her next assigment, as she usually did. When she thought about it, it was mostly because of her dinners with Raoul.


	2. Chapter 2

The third time Raoul invited her for dinner, Kel thought she knew what to expect. When she walked in, however, the room was lit by just a few candles. The food was more exquisitly presented. And the door to the bedchamber, she noticed, was open.

Raoul himself was reassuringly the same, and over dinner, conversation ranged from tactics to politics to weapons to animals. As they finished eating, though, Raoul's body language changed. He leaned closer to Kel, carefully attentive. His foot brushed hers under the table. His eyes watched her with a particular focus.

“What do you think of this, tonight?” he finally asked. His gesture could have indicated the empty dishes on the table – he could have been asking her opinion of the food – or it could have encompassed the entire room, with the soft lighting and the open door beyond the table.

Kel breathed deeply, once, before answering honestly. “I think that if you weren't a married man, and my former knight-master, I would suspect you of trying to seduce me.”

His expression went sheepish, at that, but he didn't look away. “And if I was... would it be likely to work?”

“If you weren't a married man...” She hesitated. “Who knows? But you are, my lord.” She gave the honorific deliberate weight, taking refuge in the formality.


	3. Chapter 3

“I am a married man,” Raoul admitted. “But Buri and I don't have the most conventional relationship. We were both single for twenty years before we found each other. The things we had then... didn't just disappear. Kel, she has her life, and I have mine. There is joy when our lives intersect, but when they don't, we are happy separately, as we always have been.”

“Be that as it may,_ I'm_ not something you had before Buri. Will she really see it the same way?”

“Yes.” Kel could tell he wanted, very much, to touch her, but he wasn't sure she'd let him. Good – it served him right to be off balance, just then. Still, she could definitely feel herself responding to his interest.

It wasn't something she'd thought of much – not something she'd let herself consider, if she was honest. But the interest – the potential – was there.

“I think I'd like to talk to Buri,” Kel said at last. “I'll see for myself if she feels the way you say she will.”

She looked Raoul in the eye as she said it, waiting for a flinch of fear or uncertainty that would tell her he was lying. Instead he nodded calmly.


	4. Chapter 4

“You'll be going, then?” Raoul asked, obviously disappointed.

“For now.”

He stood when she did, and she let him take her hand. But when he would have brought her fingers to his lips, she cupped his chin, instead, and leaned up to kiss him properly. She took him by surprise, she could feel that in the way his whole body went still for a second before his arms came around her. But when he caught up with what was happening, she let him draw her close and for a moment, she gave herself over to the sensations.

When she drew back, she was smiling. “I had to make sure there was something worth coming back for.”

“And?”

“Don't beg for compliments,” she replied. “It isn't becoming.” She was out the door before he could respond, knowing that in a way, she had answered his question. Now she just had to find Buri.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is kind of an exercise to see if I can write Kel/Raoul without Buri in the mix. It turns out, I can, but I see no reason to do so. Now I know.

It was summertime, and the ride to Pirate's Swoop, where the new Queen's Riders were in training, was pleasant. Kel found Buri on the beach, looking out at the clear, blue water as waves pounded the shore.

“I've spent some time with your husband, lately,” Kel said, after they'd exchanged greetings.

“I'm not surprised.” Buri raised an eyebrow, arms crossed over her chest. Unspoken was her question: why do you feel the need to tell me this?

Kel chose her next words carefully. “He told me that the two of you have an unconventional relationship.”

“Ah.” Buri was positively smirking at her, now. “I should have known.”

“Is it really true?” Kel asked, curiously. “He said you wouldn't mind, and I've never not trusted him.”

“It's true. If he'd be happier with you in his life, in that way...” Buri shrugged. She stood with her feet apart, bare toes digging into the sand. Her hair was unbraided, for once, and the wind caught at the dark strands and whipped them around her face. She met Kel's eyes with a look of pure joy, and Kel felt herself smiling back.


	6. Chapter 6

A case of nerves attacked Kel on her way back to the palace. Suddenly she was unsure, as she hadn't been since the weeks after Cleon kissed her for the first time, back when they were squires. Raoul wanted her, he'd made that clear enough, and amazingly, his wife didn't mind. Kel wasn't worried about her reputation: it had little enough to do with the way she actually lived, and anyway, by now she knew how to be discreet.

So the only variable still unknown was Kel, herself. Did she want Raoul?

A part of her certainly did. She remembered the kiss they had shared in his rooms, and yes, she wanted more. But her mind presented so many ways it could end badly, that a part of her was terrified to begin.

In the end, she might have spared herself the worry: Third Company had been called out while she was at Priate's Swoop. There was only a note from its commander:

_Kel,  
The offer stands. I'm sure we'll cross paths again.  
R_


	7. Chapter 7

In the months that followed, Kel had plenty of opportunities to regret her earlier hesitation. In June, she was stationed at Fort Steadfast when Third Company rode in. In August, they were camped outside Fief Seabeth when she passed through. She had friendly encounters with Raoul – and some of her old friends in the company – each time.

But discretion at the palace was one thing; discretion among a hundred men, regarding their commander, was impossible. They gossiped worse than the palace serving women. Raoul, fortunately, understood this as well as Kel did. Neither one of them made a move. But there were moments, in early summer and in late, when they looked at each other and Kel knew they were both waiting. The right chance hadn't presented itself yet. Kel hoped it would. Soon.


	8. Chapter 8

Winter that year brought a huge influx of humanity to the palace, including lone knights like Kel, Third Company of the King's Own, and – to Kel's secret disappointment – Lady Buriram of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak.

Kel made herself be friendly and polite to Buri, asking questions about the newest batch of Rider recruits and showing an interest in her life. They were, or had been once, friends. There was no reason for that to change, just because Kel somehow found herself head-over-heels in lust with Buri's husband. But when, Kel wondered, had Raoul – the possiblity of going to bed with Raoul – become so important in her mind? And what was she going to do about it?


	9. Chapter 9

Raoul knocked on Kel's door, one morning in November.

“Fancy a joust?” he asked, amiably. “The weather mages are predicting snow for tomorrow. It could be our last chance until spring.”

“If you like.” Kel's pulse raced. It was the first time they'd been alone, together, since arriving in Corus. “I can meet you in the training yard, once I get ready.”

“Mind if I wait here?” He stepped past her into the room, the back of his hand brushing her thigh as he passed.

“Of course not.” Her eyes followed Raoul as he crossed to the window. A small pain of glass was set between the shutters, and Kel joined him in looking out. The sky was gray, and as they watched, fluffy white flakes began to fall from the sky. “Tomorrow?” Kel asked, eyebrow raised.

Raoul shrugged. “I may have remembered that wrong. I guess we'll have to find something else to do.”

“You planned it on purpose!” Caught between exasperation and amusement, Kel began to laugh.

She stopped laughing when Raoul's hand came to rest at the back of her waist.


	10. Chapter 10

After months of near-misses, Kel was ready to throw herself at Raoul. To her surprise, his kiss was slow, almost tentative in its sweetness. He held her close, big hands covering half her back at once, and she clung to the broad expanse of his chest. She was the one to push forward first, tongue sweeping into his mouth. Then she drew her mouth away, lips trailing down his neck as her fingers worked at the laces on his shirt.

“Worth waiting for?” he asked, with a wolfish grin.

“Yes,” she said, grabbing his hand and towing him toward her bedchamber. “But now I'm tired of waiting.”

“Fine with me,” he said, as they hurriedly undressed. There was that grin again, and his arms around her once more, but instead of taking her to the bed, he backed her against the wall.


	11. Chapter 11

“This is different,” Kel gasped, pinned between Raoul's body and the wall. The stone scraped her skin, and she reflected that it wouldn't be the first time he'd left marks on her back.

“Wrap your legs around me,” he directed. “It's all right. I have you.”

Eyes shining with lust, she did as he asked.

“There,” he said, shifting her position a little.

“Oh,” she moaned. “Now you have me.”

“Like it?” His voice cracked.

“Very much.” She dug fingers into his shoulders, leaving marks of her own. “You?”

“Of course.” He held her by the hips, and her upper back bumped the wall again. “Knew I would.”

“One request,” she said. “Can you kiss me while you do that?”

It turned out he could.


End file.
